Commercial and/or personal venues such as theme parks, movie theatres, performance theatres, stages, and/or other venues use separate media playback devices to deliver multimedia content of a multimedia presentation. Multimedia presentations include, for example, visual, audio, visual effects (e.g., lighting, fog, and/or other effects), and/or other components. The audio of a multimedia presentation may be represented by an analog or digital audio signal. The audio is produced using one or more audio playback devices (e.g., a speaker) that produce sound based on the audio signal. Similarly, the visual component may be represented by an analog or digital video signal that is presented using one or more video playback devices (e.g., a display) that produce still or moving images using the video signal. Other media playback devices may produce other components of the multimedia presentation.
The media playback devices are synchronized to one another to ensure that the multimedia presentation remains coherent. The audio, visual, and/or other media signals may be communicated to the respective playback devices via separate and distinct communication channels and/or networks such that differences in channel characteristics such as speed and latency can desynchronize the component parts of a multimedia presentation. Specialized synchronization hardware may be employed at each of the media playback devices to overcome these challenges.